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Collective Investment Schemes Control Act, 2002 (Act No. 45 of 2002)

Board Notices

Advertising, marketing and information disclosure requirements for collective investment schemes

Part IV : Performance Disclosures

8. Past performance disclosure requirements

 

(1) A manager may only publish an advertisement which includes a statement relating to past performance if—
(a) the basis on which the performance is measured is clearly stated and the presentation of the performance is fair and reasonable;
(b) the statement is accompanied by a warning that past performance is not indicative of future performance; and
(c) the past performance is relevant to the investment or the service offered by the manager.

 

(2) When a manager includes past performance in an advertisement or marketing material, the manager must ensure that—
(a) annualised or cumulative figures are used and are the figures as at month-end quoted against relevant indices or benchmarks for periods of a minimum of one rolling year and in multiples of full years for periods longer than one year;
(b) cumulative performance figures include the relevant annualised figures for the same period and are reflected with equal prominence as the cumulative figures;
(c) returns for any periods may not be extrapolated to longer periods except in the case of a money market portfolio where annualised current yields are used;
(d) a history of at least the most recent rolling ten years is shown, or where the portfolio has been in existence for less than ten years, the history since inception or change of classification of that portfolio;
(e) an explanation of annualised figures is added;
(f) the lowest and highest actual annual figure for the period to show variability is added; and
(g) actual annual figures are available to the investor on request.

 

(3) A manager may, provided the selected performance publication option is applied on a consistent basis, publish its portfolio returns on one or more of the following bases—
(a) rolling monthly;
(b) rolling quarterly;
(c) rolling annual; or
(d) year-to-date.

 

(4) When a manager includes since-inception-performance in an advertisement or marketing material, the manager must ensure that—
(a) the launch date is clearly stated;
(b) if since-inception cumulative performance figures are in full years, (for example five years or ten years), these figures must include the relevant annualised figures for the same period reflected with equal prominence as the cumulative figures;
(c) performance figures of less than six months' duration are not shown in the advertisement.

 

(5) A manager must ensure that performance information that is advertised is not older than three months at the time of publication.

 

(6) Where a manager quotes actual case histories in an advertisement relating to the past performance of a portfolio, these must start with the inception of the quoted investor's account and all relevant data must be made available for audit on request.

 

(7) A manager must ensure that performance statistics in an advertisement clearly reflect—
(a) whether recurring investment or lump sum investment performances are being quoted;
(b) whether or not income distributions, prior to deduction of applicable taxes, are included in the calculations; and
(c) that NAV to NAV figures have been used.

 

(8) Where a manager advertises a collective investment scheme in securities listed on an exchange, performance calculations must be based on the NAV calculated by the manager at the valuation point defined in the deed.

 

(9) A manager must make investment performance calculations available for verification upon request by any person.